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Neighborhood watch programs, security services, and police privatization
Though private security has an important role to play in community safety, it should not usurp the government's responsibility to maintain order and protect our communities
by Lance Eldridge
Private security is big business. Estimates suggest that private security guards outnumber police in the US by a 5:1 ratio. The Department of Justice believes that “at least two million persons are ... employed in private security in the United States.” In the United States alone, customers spend nearly $35 billion each year on private security services. Globally, the numbers are staggering, approaching nearly $100 billion annually.
In an unpredictable and unstable world, experts believe this number will only increase. Unable to meet all demands, public law enforcement agencies have explored private sector alternatives in lieu of increasingly scarce taxpayer dollars. Both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Department of Justice have embraced some of these public / private partnerships as a logical outgrowth of community policing. However, a dependency on private security instead of public law enforcement, over time, could erode the hard-won trust between communities and the officers who are sworn to protect and serve.
Looking at the history of law enforcement in America, it's clear that private security firms have played a role since at least 1855. That's when Allan Pinkerton founded the now-famous private security company.
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Expert Analysis
Police privatization in Great Britain
by Lance Eldridge
While many in the United States fear our health care system may become like the British, apparently many in Britain fear something similar for their public law enforcement agencies. Debate has emerged recently in Great Britain because of large-scale proposals to privatize many responsibilities typically assigned to patrol officers.
“Oh my God,” some have gasped in a properly clipped British accent, “we're becoming more like the Americans everyday. We must to move to Scotland,” where, apparently, they are NOT becoming more like Americans.
In March of this year reports surfaced in the British press that some politicians and police professionals were considering a privatization scheme for two large police forces, those in West Midlands and Surrey. These emerged in the wake of similar proposals for Lincolnshire. The company at the forefront of these efforts fashions itself the “leading international security solutions group.”
Continue reading Police privatization in Great Britain
Roles and Responsibilities
Private security firms provide specific tasks for individuals, companies, or concerns that demand a more immediate and tailored service than public police can provide, especially given the large number of resource constraints on the public sector. As a result, private security can serve corporate interests, supplement sworn law enforcement when necessary, and in the rarest-of-circumstances, replace public law enforcement officers.
Business and corporations that employ private security firms — or have their own in-house security personnel — want their security specialists to weigh risks, profitability, and corporate image, something that public police may not consider if their focus is on catching criminals for prosecution.
One example is the FedEx Police, recognized by the State of Tennessee as sworn law enforcement personnel. Though they are not uniformed, they apparently have full police powers, work closely with the FBI, and even have a seat on a regional terrorism task force.
FedEx is not the first or only corporate entity to have police powers. According to Gene Voegtlin of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, as early as the 1800's the railroads established private police forces and today their authority remains intact on railroad property, but beyond that varies from state-to-state. Other modern examples are some metro area transit authority police and police at selected private universities and colleges that work under similarly-limited conditions.
The growth of private security to supplement public law enforcement has also accompanied the increase in gated communities. According to professor of urban policy Edward Blakely, somewhere between six and nine million U.S. citizens “live in single-family residences in gated suburban developments...” They live in what they believe to be an oasis from the crime and violence outside their walls.
The truth is more mundane.
Blakely's research concluded that “gated communities do not have less crime than the suburbs from which they're walled off,” the one exception being car theft. “For many,” Blakely continues, “the guards at the gate provide an artificial sense of safety.”
Richard Schneider, a professor of urban planning at the University of Florida, is another academic who questions the viability of gated communities to provide a crime-free environment. He believes that "[y]ou're just as likely to be burgled by your next-door neighbor, especially if there are teenagers.” The gates don't serve as an effective deterrent, argues Professor Schneider. Criminals “learn the code from the pizza guy...The effects of gating decay over time.”
If those living in a gated community (or outside for that matter) cannot afford to contract security services, they may turn to the less expensive alternative of an unarmed or armed nationally recognized Neighborhood Watch program. Typically, neighborhood watchers report crime and do not respond, leaving that responsibility to the police.
Residents in Georgetown, a non-community in Washington, DC, have adopted a program with support and training from the Washington DC Metro Police Department. This training is based, in part, on the Department of Justice's Neighborhood Watch Manual.
Though not armed, this approach is similar to the one at the Retreat of Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by an armed neighborhood watch member, George Zimmerman.
American History
In the United States, much of the debate over law enforcement privatization has centered on prisons, where, according to the Department of Justice, approximately 1.5 million prisoners — or seven percent — of our total prison population, are serving their sentence. Supporters of privatization, such as Florida's governor Rick Scott, believe that the benefits of reported cost savings outweigh the possible limitations. Critics point out that privately run prisons reduce essential services so they can maximize profits and, in some instances resemble “a historically racist practice of the old Confederate South: convict leasing.”
With the exception of prisons, private security services typically do not replace public policing authority. However, there are some examples where this has occurred and the trend could increase. State peace officer certification boards are responsible for opening this door. Tennessee, which modified the laws for the Tennessee Valley Authority to accommodate FedEx, is only one example.
In North Carolina, the Capitol Special Police look and act like sworn officers. The officers pictured on their home page look no different than those found on web pages of small departments nationwide. They have the power to arrest, so there is no need for them to detain a suspect and wait for sworn officers to respond. Though the Capitol Special Police supplement public law enforcement, elsewhere a community opted to replace their whole police force with private security.
In the early 1990s, and in the wake of a drug scandal that involved the then-acting police chief, New Jersey's town of Sussex Borough disbanded their local four-person department and privatized police services. The private cure proved contentious and ultimately unworkable. The contract between the town and Executive Security and Investigative Services lasted only a few months. Originally meant to supplement the state police, the courts found that the company's mandate exceeded statutory authority and forced Sussex to abandon the experiment. One New Jersey Deputy Attorney General argued in court that the contract put “a disruptive new layer between the citizens and law enforcement.”
Ancient Times
There is, of course, another cautionary tale. The legionnaires, centurions, and tribunes that marched with C. Marius and L. Cornelius Sulla during the first two Roman civil wars (circa 88-81 BC) and, later, G. Julius Caesar (circa 49-45 BC) did not owe their loyalty to the Roman citizenry or the state. No longer did Roman citizens man the legions that had protected the Republic.
The conscripts' and foreign mercenaries' loyalties lay instead with their generals, who paid them, provided retirement options, and brought them glory.
The Republic fell under their weight.
Local police are not likely to cross the Rubicon as Caesar did to openly seize power. However, a contracted police force that works for a corporate entity is not subservient to legitimate political authority. Instead it owes its loyalty to paymasters, who in turn are responsible to shareholders, no matter how much rhetorical or contractual makeup is applied.
We should heed the lessons of Sussex and Rome...
About the author
After having completed more than 20 years of active military service, Lance Eldridge retired from the US Army and is currently a patrol officer in Craig, Colorado. While in the military, he held leadership positions in a variety of organizations and has written extensively about US military strategy operations, and history. He is a graduate of the US Army's Command and General Staff College and the Norwegian Staff College. He holds a Masters Degree in History and a Masters Degree in Strategic Intelligence. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in national security strategy, European regional security, US history, and terrorism.
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of his or any other law enforcement agency.
http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/5634628-Neighborhood-watch-programs-security-services-and-police-privatization/
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D.C. Council votes to limit reach of federal effort aimed at illegal immigration
by Mihir Zaveri
Federal officials on Tuesday launched a controversial program in the District that targets illegal immigration, but not without a fight from some city officials who argue the effort undermines trust between police and local immigrant communities.
The program, Secure Communities, requires that arrestee fingerprints collected by local governments be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so the federal government can identify illegal immigrants and potentially move to detain or deport them. All other localities in the metropolitan area have been participating.
But the D.C. Council on Tuesday quickly voted to limit the program's reach, saying it could discourage immigrants who are crime victims or witnesses from working with police, ultimately making the city less safe.
Secure Communities calls for local jurisdictions to hold a suspected illegal immigrant who has been arrested for 48 hours so ICE can interview the detainee and decide whether to seek deportation.
The D.C. Council unanimously passed a bill to detain only those who have been previously convicted of a “dangerous” crime and only for an additional 24 hours beyond the time they would otherwise be held. Under the legislation, the city would hold people only if the federal government paid for the additional day of incarceration. And it would prohibit city officials from participating in a “generalized search of or inquiry about inmates” conducted by federal authorities. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) is expected to sign the bill.
Danielle Bennett, spokeswoman for ICE, said in a statement that the agency “anticipates that law enforcement agencies will comply” with the 48-hour detainer, though “ ICE has not sought to compel compliance through legal proceedings. Jurisdictions that ignore detainers bear the risk of possible public safety risks.”
Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the council's public safety and judiciary committee, said the legislation is needed to keep the federal government from “using local government for federal immigration enforcement.”
“That works against community policing,” Mendelson said. “We want people who are victims to report crime, and we want witnesses to report crime.”
Kristopher Baumann, head of the D.C. police union, disagreed, calling Mendelson's and others' comments about the program “fear mongering.”
“This was a program in place that would actually help keep people safe and keep bad folks out of the streets,” Baumann said.
Bennett said the implementation of Secure Communities, started by the federal government in 2008, has been staggered so the agency can cope with the new data.
From March 2009, when Fairfax County activated the program, through March 2012, 1,246 people were removed from the county through the initiative, and 408 of them had committed serious crimes, such as murder or drug trafficking, or were considered threats to national security, according to ICE. Prince George's County, which started the program in December 2009, has removed 493 people. Since the program's start in Montgomery County in February, there have been no deportations there.
D.C. politicians have long opposed Secure Communities.
In October, Gray signed an executive order that bars D.C. police and corrections officials from asking those they come in contact with about their immigration status. They also will not enforce an ICE detainer or warrant issued against someone who has not committed another crime.
Bennett said the program does not put any additional requirements — such as forcing police to actively check someone's immigration status — on local governments. She said ICE does not direct local police on how or when to collect the fingerprints, which are sent to the FBI and then ICE.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in a statement that the onset of Secure Communities would not change the way officers interact with people in the community.
“The members of the police department will not be involved in the identification of undocumented foreign nationals or the enforcement of civil immigration laws,” Lanier said. “Additionally, we will continue to proactively protect witnesses and victims of crime through all available means.”
According to Pedro Ribeiro, a Gray spokesman, the problem with the program is when undocumented people worry that they will run into trouble with ICE, whether or not they would actually be subject to removal. For instance, he said, an undocumented domestic-abuse victim may be reluctant to report the crime, fearing deportation.
“It's one of these things where local law enforcement and local elected officials know what's best for their communities, not the secretary of homeland security,” Ribeiro said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-council-votes-to-limit-reach-of-federal-effort-aimed-at-illegal-immigration/2012/06/05/gJQAVgm5GV_story.html
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From Google News
Michigan
Downriver communities are dealing with synthetic drugs in variety of ways
by Dave Herndon
Synthetic marijuana — which goes by names such as K2, Spice — is being snuffed out across the Downriver area.
Allen Park is expected to start the process of adopting an ordinance banning the sale of the products at a City Council meeting Tuesday. Councilman Angelo DeGuilio is expected to present a resolution to ban the sale of those substances. Per the city charter, ordinances must have three public readings before they can be adopted.
Public safety officials are strongly in favor of banning the products. Police Chief James Wilkewicz already has started checking to see the availability of K2 in the city. He stopped in at various stores that were likely to sell the products, such as smoke shops and gas stations.
“Two days ago, I went out and stopped in about 12 different stores just to see how widely available it is,” he said Thursday. “Only one of those stores was selling it.”
Wilkewicz said the store had three varieties, one of which appeared to be aimed at children with a picture of cartoon character Scooby-Doo.
He said the store owner said he was selling the products “because they aren't illegal,” and that he would continue until the police brought him a letter showing that it was. When The News-Herald Newspapers stopped at the store, the product was not on shelves. No one in the store could confirm if they had stopped selling it or if it was simply out of stock.
Wilkewicz said he thought the ratio of stores selling it might have been closer to 50 percent.
“I didn't know what I might find when I went out looking,” he said. “I'm glad that I didn't find more. In this economy, people are trying to do anything they can to make a buck.”
Allen Park Fire Chief Douglas LaFond said his department has had firsthand experience dealing with the effects of K2.
“About a year ago, we had a call because someone had tried it,” he said. “The person had gone crazy. They also had an elevated heart rate, high blood pressure and other symptoms.”
Both department heads said synthetic marijuana should be off the streets.
“I was going to bring it up to the City Council at the next meeting,” LaFond said. “This is not something that we need in the city.”
Wilkewicz agreed with LaFond and said the Police Department will aggressively enforce any new ordinance that is adopted about it.
“It's a hazard to our community,” he said. “We would definitely make sure to inform our business owners, and aggressively enforce an ordinance at first to make sure people know they can't do it anymore.”
Mayor William Matakas said he also favors an ordinance banning the products.
“We need to do this because we don't know how fast the state might move on a broader ban,” he said. “I'm not sure that they will have it passed before the (legislative) break in July.”
The Wayne County Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that it had issued an “imminent danger order.”
“Wayne County is declaring an imminent danger to control the expanding problem of serious health effects associated with synthetic marijuana, and particularly its usage among young people,” Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said in a press release.
The order covers all types of synthetic marijuana and bath salts known by several brand names. The substance must be pulled off all store shelves in the 42 communities outside of Detroit covered by the health department.
“The problem with what the county did is that thehealthdepartment doesn't have the manpower to enforce the ban,” Wilkewicz said.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Department plans to aggressively enforce the order, the release said. The county has a 24-hour hotline, 1-734-727-7163, to report retailers selling the substances.
The health department also sent information about synthetic marijuana to all health care providers in its jurisdiction.
Other cities Downriver also are working on ways to ban the sale of these products.
Speaking to the Wyandotte City Council on Monday, Police Chief Daniel Grant told city officials he believes the state and federal governments are moving quickly to ban or restrict the sale of K2. If the law doesn't change quickly enough, Grant said, the city can address it locally, but his advice was to take a wait-and-see approach.
“Anytime people have access to a substance like this, it's a problem,” he said. “Laws on the books can't come soon enough.”
Wyandotte police are aware of only one gas station in the city that is selling K2. Grant said he plans to speak with the owner to see if he will voluntarily pull it off the shelves.
One measure Grant believes lawmakers will need to take so that laws regulating the substance will be effective are to carefully craft the wording so that manufacturers can't simply change one or two ingredients to get around it.
LaFond also said that the laws need to be as broad as possible with the wording for similar reasons.
“There was a law passed about a year ago that banned synthetic marijuana,” he said. “But that ban only applied to that specific chemical compound, so if they changed a molecule or two, it was legal again. We need laws that ban the product totally — not one specific chemical composition.”
The city of Taylor has not encountered any problems with the drug so far, Police Chief Dale Tamsen said, but he wants to be proactive in addressing it. There are plans to present an emergency “synthetic marijuana and dangerous products ordinance” at the next City Council meeting June 19, he said.
Being presented under the emergency auspice would mean the ordinance would only require a single reading by the council, which would accelerate its approval.
With the ordinance, store owners who continued to sell the products would receive a warning, and repeated offenses would be met with ticketing and possibly being arrested, depending on the situation, Tamsen said.
In Lincoln Park and Southgate, Edward Zelenak, attorney for both cities, said his office will propose an ordinance for each after state legislation is signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder. The county order offers adequate authority for cities to enforce the ban in the meantime, Zelenak said. The ordinances will be based on state law.
Officials in Southgate spoke on the matter extensively during Wednesday's City Council meeting. Council President Karen George said the city has been proactive in tackling the problem and Councilman Bill Colovos has checked numerous tobacco shops in the city and had not found any that were selling it.
Lincoln Park Mayor Patricia Diaz Krause said there was concern in her city, as well. She had heard that several tobacco shops or party stores were selling it, but did not know how many or which ones. Detective Sgt. Raymond Watters said it has not been a major issue in Lincoln Park, but, “That's not to say that it's not out there.”
Police in Romulus visited 24 stores and gas stations June 5 and found five that were openly selling some form of synthetic drugs, including the widely publicized and dangerous K2. Romulus Police Chief Robert Dickerson said that when officers explained the potential health hazards and shared information about recent deaths of young people associated with the use of the drugs, the store owners voluntarily removed the products from their shelves and pledged they would no longer sell these types of items.
“These drugs are so dangerous and are ruining lives,” Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert said. “We hoped no businesses in the city were selling synthetic drugs, but we needed to find out firsthand. Our police officers did an excellent job communicating with local businesses. I am pleased that the vast majority of businesses were not selling the drugs, and I thank the five other shop owners for their cooperation.”
The Romulus Community Drug Task Force and the Romulus Ministerial Alliance recently combined efforts on an informational prayer session and candlelight vigil in which the dangers of synthetic drugs were explained to residents. Both organizations support and praised the Police Department's efforts and pledged to continue to assist officers in educating and protecting young people from these and all other dangerous drugs.
“As a normal course in our community policing efforts, officers — both uniformed and undercover — will continue to make random checks in all retail businesses and gas stations in an effort to ensure that no synthetic drugs are being sold in Romulus,” Dickerson said.
Rockwood Mayor Daniel Guzzi said the growing concerns about K2 prompted a discussion on its use and availability at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Guzzi said that since it was labeled as a controlled substance at the county level, it does not require the city to take additional action. However, he said if and when that legal action is challenged and the city is not protected, officials will take action against it being sold.
Rockwood Police Chief Steven Rowe had an officer check throughout the city to see if it was being sold there. The search revealed that no stores are selling K2 in the city.
Guzzi said that until federal action is taken on the matter, this fight isn't over.
Although the issue has not formally been brought before the Brownstown Township Board of Trustees, James Sclater, director of public safety, said he has prepared some information for consideration on how to address the issue.
He said it looks like the county and state are taking action on the issue, which will effectively cover everyone. Nevertheless, he said some township officials have voiced concerns about its availability.
Sclater said he has not had an opportunity to talk with township officials yet, but it could become a topic of discussion at a future meeting.
http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/06/08/news/doc4fd25b320d89e795223476.txt?viewmode=fullstory
